


Everything Is Fine

by BrokenStereo13



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Chronic Illness, Jalex - Freeform, M/M, all time low - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 07:07:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20385688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenStereo13/pseuds/BrokenStereo13
Summary: Alex has always been a sickly boy. He has a number of chronic illnesses that he has been battling for as long as he can remember. Despite the constant uphill battle with his health, Alex wants to expereince as much normalcy in his life as he can.





	Everything Is Fine

Alex could help but feel nervous as he walked into his dorm room at Towson University. He had about a week until his classes started and although he was taking a light load this semester, he couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the changes from home to college life. His parents had helped him move some of his belongings in yesterday so he figured he’d try to unpack a little bit before his roommate got in. From what he’d gathered from messages he had exchanged with this kid, Jack Barakat was his name, he was also from Baltimore and had attended one of the high schools within the area. Alex couldn’t be bothered to remember which one. 

He looked around at the small dorm. The walls were a plain shade of beige and there was one bunk bed in the corner. Along the adjacent wall was a couple of desks, which he doubted either of them would ever use. He glanced over at another door over by the entry way. It seemed logical that he assumed the bathroom was behind that door. Upon further inspection he found that he was in fact correct with his assumption. The bathroom came complete with only a stand up shower, a toilet, and a hand sink. Across the cubicle sized room was another door, the door to his suite mates’ room. Four men, one bathroom. What could go wrong? 

Alex’s attention shifted when his roommate walked through the door. He was tall and lanky with dark hair, aside from the one blonde patch that ran through the front of his locks. Alex decided it reminded him of a skunk, but that it suited the other boy well.

“Hi, I’m Jack!” the lanky boy greeted enthusiastically. He stared for a moment, taking in Alex’s appearance. He had a slender frame, and caramel colored locks, with mesmerizing eyes to match. Jack smiled. His roommate was hot. 

“Alexander,” Alex began, smiling at Jack. “But everyone just calls me Alex.”

“So Alex, where are you from?” 

“I lived about 20 minutes south of Dulaney High” Alex answered, suddenly remembering where Jack said he had gone to high school.

“Oh no way!” Jack answered excitedly. “How come I never saw you around then?”

“I uh, I was home schooled after seventh grade. I have some health issues that had gotten kind of out of hand at the time so it was really my only option.”

“That’s a bummer, dude” Jack offered a sympathetic smile. “You’re better now though, right?” Jack asked. 

“Yes and no. My symptoms are much better controlled now than they were then, but I am chronically ill so I probably wont ever really be better”

“Shit, I’m sorry to hear that. What do you have, if you don’t mind me asking?’’ Jack questioned with a bit of hesitation. 

“ I don’t mind at all. I get asked a lot and at this point I should probably just print out some cards or something to hand out.” Alex joked. “Anyways I have a few different things. I have gastroparesis, ehlers danlos syndrome, and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.” 

Jack nodded, not really understanding what any of that even meant. Alex must have picked up on that. 

“Okay so gastroparesis is like a paralyzed, or partially paralyzed stomach. Which pretty much just means that I don’t digest food properly. It pretty much just makes me miserably nauseous if I don’t eat the right foods. My doctors think that it could be related to my ehlers danlos syndrome, or EDS, but they aren’t really sure. My EDS just means that my joints are super bendy and they can dislocate from time to time if I’m not careful. More often though then tend to just sublux, or partially dislocated and not sit quite where they should. My skin is also fragile and I bruise like a summer peach. And last but not least, is my POTS, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. Basically my heart starts to beat really fast if i change my positions too quickly and it makes me extremely light headed and sometimes I might even pass out. I’ve gotten pretty good at listening to my body though and that doesn’t happen too often anymore.”

Jack nodded in understanding. “So how do you, like, fix it?”

“There isn’t really a way to fix it. It’s really just a matter of trial and error with meds until hopefully you find something that works. So when I was 15 I got a port surgically placed and I’ll typically do three infusions a week. Maybe four if I’m having a particularly bad week. That helps keep me hydrated as my oral intake is pretty limited because of my gastroparesis. It also helps with my POTS. For my EDS I basically just take a shit ton of Motrin and do a bunch of physical therapy. I have some stronger pain meds for days when it’s really bad but I don’t really like those because they make my GP flare up. They tried a pacemaker for my stomach but that didn’t really do me any good and I don’t have that anymore. I’m on some special meds that seem to be doing pretty well for right now along with a very limited diet and some anti nausea meds.” 

“That’s intense, I’m sorry you have to deal with all of that.”

Alex just nodded. “Enough about me. Tell me about you. Your life has to be way more interesting than mine.” 

“I’m not too sure about that.” Jack snorted. “I play guitar a little. I’m about as gay as gay gets so uh, hopefully you arent bothered by that. I love music. Blink-182, New Found Glory, the works, you know.” 

Alex smiled. “This is the start of a beautiful friendship, Jackary.” He’s not too sure where the nickname came from, but he was going with it. “So wanna go grab smoothies and view the campus?”

“Let’s do it!”

The two newfound friends set out for the campus smoothie shop. It was approaching fall but summer wasn’t quite over yet. So the days were pretty hit or miss for Alex. Today was perfect. Slightly cloudy and about seventy five degrees. The heat tended to make his POTS worse so he would be pretty much confined to the indoors during the summer season. Jack and Alex made small talk the whole way to the smoothie place. Alex couldn’t help but feel comfortable around Jack. Even with his excessive bouncing, he still gave off this nurturing vibe. They got to the smoothie shop and Alex ordered a peanut butter banana smoothie. Jack got the tropical blend which was strawberry, pineapple, and orange with coconut milk. Alex couldn’t help but miss food that were on his list of “safe foods”. Jack sucked down his drink in no time at all while Alex sipped cautiously at his, trying not to make himself sick on day one away from home. Slow and steady usually wins the race for Alex. He noticed that Jack had been finished for awhile and it kind of made him feel bad for keeping him waiting. He sipped a little quicker.

“ We can go if you want.” Alex spoke up. He was only about halfway through his smoothie, which was way further than he normally made it as he normally felt uncomfortably full after about a quarter of the drink. “I’m not sure I can drink much more and it’s probably better that I don’t make myself ill.” 

“Let’s not do that.” Jack laughed. “I’m ready if you are.”

The two made their way back to their dorm, making sure to take their time. They were enjoying each others company. Both were super excited that they got a good roommate. Alex just hoped that Jack wouldn’t get tired of his poor health. It had happened with all of his other friends. They got tired of him not being able to do things. They got tired of him being so tired. They got tired of him being sick all the time. It’s not like Alex chose to be sick. It wasn’t exactly fun for him. He missed eating junk food like pizza and fried goods. He took things like that with a grain of salt though. He knew one day he’d be pretty much strictly tube fed so he was going to enjoy what he could eat while he could still eat. 

Alex couldn’t help but notice how bloated he felt as they got closer to the dorm. Maybe he shouldn’t have had so much. He frowned a bit.

“You okay, Lex”?

Lex. Alex liked that nickname. He nodded. “Just a little stomach ache is all. Nothing out of the ordinary for me.” 

Jack frowned. “Do you need to stop and rest?”

Alex shook his head. “I just want to get back so I can lie down for a bit.” The nausea was beginning to set in and he knew he was in for a rough night. He definitely shouldn’t have had so much of that smoothie. 

They made it back to the dorm and Alex went directly to his bunk and curled up trying to ease some of the nausea. 

Jack just stood in the middle of the room for a minute trying to decide what he should do. He saw Alex grimace and he couldn’t help but feel bad for the boy. So he settled on trying to comfort him. He sat on the edge of Alex’s bed and reached to lay a hand on his friend’s shoulder. He offered a smile.

“M’ okay.” Alex spoke through his grit teeth. He never got used to the nausea and vomiting and he hated every time just as much as he hated the first time. 

Jack probably would have laughed at him if he didn’t look so uncomfortable. Alex had told him about his illnesses, but he didn’t look like he was sick earlier. He looked sick now though. “That might be more convincing if you didn’t look like you were about to puke all over me. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Um, can you maybe grab a med for me? It’s called zofran and it should be in the front pocket of my bag that’s hanging on the door.” 

Jack nodded and he got up and brought back a bright orange prescription bottle. 

Alex fumbled with the cap and then fought to get the pill out of the blister pack. Fucking pharmacies and their extra packaging. He popped one of the tablets under his tongue and let it dissolve. He was sure it wouldn’t help but it was worth a shot.

Alex layed in bed for a long time. He thinks it was somewhere around two hours but he’s not sure. He felt too sick to pay attention. Jack was still sitting next to him trying to offer any kind of comfort. He really appreciated it. He was so glad to not be alone while feeling so shitty. Eventually the nausea got the best of him.

“Jack,” he spoke. “Gotta move. Gonna be sick.” He tried to scramble up, making himself incredibly dizzy in the process. He knew if he tried to stand up that he’d probably pass out. He should have known that the stress of being away from home would cause a flare up. He should have known better. Stress always made him worse. 

“Alex? Hey, Lex, are you okay?” Jack knew it was a dumb qestion but he didn’t know what else to say.  
“Just really dizzy. I need a minute.” He was hoping he had a minute.

“Can I do anything? Do you need help getting to the toilet?” It wasn’t really something he wanted to be a part of but it was better than Alex passing out or puking all over their dorm

Alex took a breath. “I think I’m okay now.” He stood up and made his way to the bathroom, using the wall for support. He made it a point to close the door behind him.

Jack was thankful for that. He was a little squeamish. He heard Alex retching on the other side of the door and he winced. He wanted to comfort his friend but wasn’t sure he could stomach it. Then he heard the sniffling and he decided that if Alex could live like that then he could suck it up and be there for him. He knocked on the door and slowly entered the bathroom. 

“Oh Lex.” he sighed. He sat down next to his friend. “What can I do?”

Alex leaned into his touch before lurching forward again, dry heaving. He didn’t eat much these days so he did a lot of dry heaving. Once he was sure he was done for awhile, he looked back at Jack and offered a shy smile. “Sorry about that.”

Jack was confused by this. “For what? You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re sick, Alex. You can’t help it.”

Alex smiled at him and stood up from his spot in front of the toilet. He was still incredibly nauseous, but he was empty. So he walked out of the room and began digging through a box labeled medical supplies. He pulled out a bag of fluids and a small vial of meds. He dug out a syringe and needle out of the box and drew up some of the meds from the vial. Jack watched as he pulled a small catheter from the neck of his shirt. Jack assumed it was his port. He removed a small cap and wiped the end with an alcohol swab and removed the needle from his syringe and recapped it, setting it next to him. He slowly pushed the medicine through his line and then grabbed another syringe from the box. This one was full of something already. Saline Jack guessed. He flushed his line with the saline and pulled out a pump and some tubing from his box. Alex must have noticed Jack’s staring because he started explaining what he was doing.

“I just pushed a med called Compazine through my port. It should hopefully make me less nauseous so I can sleep. I’m going to run some fluids while I sleep so I don’t feel worse tomorrow from being dehydrated. Dehydration makes my POTS even worse so I like to keep prevent that if I can.”

Jack nodded. By the time Alex was done explaining everything, he had his fluids set up and running. 

“I’m going to hopefully try to sleep now. You can join me if you want. Unless that’s weird. Sorry, I’m clingy when I don’t feel well.”

Jack smiled. “I’d be more than happy to.” Jack slid into bed with the smaller boy. He was glad he could offer some comfort to him.

“Good night, Jack. Thank you for everything.” Alex mumbled, eyes heavy.

“Good night, Lex. You’re welcome. I’ll always be around to help.”


End file.
